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I’ve never watched a Dr. Who episode, but my understanding is that it’s like the British version of Star Trek. Very popular but also very geeky. At least that’s what members of the Twittersphere say about it. So, when someone informed me that they were submitting a Dr. Who infographic, I was naturally excited at the prospect of reviewing a truly intriguing graphic. Here at the infographic showcase, we generally come across three types of infographics: Blah graphics on blah topics.; extremely high quality graphics on over-done topics (read: the environment); and super-interesting graphics on super-interesting topics. I was really hoping this graphic was going to fall into category C. Unfortunately, the graphic has many issues which we’ll discuss more in the grading portion.

The purpose of this graphic is to show all the traveling journeys by The Doctor’s 11 guises, from all series (1963 – 2010.) The creator did not include every single journey because the data set could only feature storylines where the time travel period could be verified. If you are big fan of this show, I can easily understand why this graphic would not only interest you, but perhaps be your dream come true–if it was wasn’t jarring to look at, that is. Now feels like a good time to transition to the grading portion.

Design: D+

We don’t dole out D’s and F’s very often, but it’s clearly justified here because there are several problems. First, the color scheme makes the graphic nearly impossible to read. It probably deserves a “D” based on that alone, but its problems don’t end there. I’m not a fan of the way this graphic was arranged, and it also lacks an explanation in terms of what it actually means. Sometimes the bars are small slivers; sometimes they shoot straight across years. What’s the difference? I do not know, and no explanation is provided.

Content: C-

We are used to seeing graphics with outlandish or uncommon facts about situations. Sadly, none of those are present in this graphic. It merely shows the places that Dr. Who has visited with no additional commentary. While I applaud the graphic’s creator for collating this information (it must have been time-consuming), I simultaneously condemn him for not injecting any neat facts about the series.

We’ve said it before, and it seems we need to keep saying it. If you are submitting a graphic to the infographic showcase, bring your “A” game or prepare to feel the wrath of our old and crotchety reviewers. Ok, they’re not actually old, but they are easily irritated.

2 Comments on “Dr. Who’s Journey Through Time Infographic”

The different colors represent the different seasons the journey took place in. All of Matt Smith’s tenure is one color, because he’s only been the Doctor for one season.

The blips vs. bars indicate the breath of the time traveled. For instance, “Victory of the Daleks” takes place entirely in the 1940s; there is no appreciable time travel, aside from the normal march of time, contained within the episode, so there is no bar or arrow. Contrast that with an episode like “Vampires of Venice,” where the episode opens during the current time, but then turns to Venice in the 1500s.

Anyway, hope that clears it a bit for you.

2J.B said at 10:45 pm on November 19th, 2010:

Oh, and his name is Doctor. He has not earned a Ph.D., although he is the smartest man on Earth. He is not an M.D., although he has saved many lives. He is The Doctor. Doctor is his name, not a title.